Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #7)

Fine Arabian Stuff

Wand's Eighth is stark and cold and craggy and weird and majestic, about as good as any I've heard, Szell & Furtwangler included.

Wand's Bruckner is fine stuff.

 

The guy forgot the lyrics of a song during his concert?

 

I own a good number of DVD's of various concerts. One of them is Karajan conducting the VPO in Bruckner 8th filmed at some Austrian church with very impressive settings ...

 

This book (link below) has guided me to literally hundreds of superb recordings.

http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Mus...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261356950&sr=8-1

You can get it now for under $20 shipped from amazon.

 

Her Name Is "Java" But We Call Her "Zip"

Naah, I just think Jumpin' Jack Flash should of hung it up after "Exile on Main Street." I'm just being Catty, that's all.

My Favorite "Senile Old Conductor" has to be Leopold Stokowski, he made some great recordings in his later years, His Beethoven 9th with the LSO for Phase Four has been my favorite version for dacades. The transfer in Decca 475 6090 is the best CD transfer and the other five CDs in this box are worthwhile if you like this sort of thing.

 

George,

Believe it or not, I have never owned such a book. For me, classical music has been a lifelong discovery. When I was first exposed to classical music, I used to hate Bach music ...

 

I just think it's a great set, in sound and performance. PM me if you want to hear a sample.

Very cool. Ever hear Richter's Schubert Moments Musicaux, No. 6? He stretches it to 11:48 glorious minutes. One of those special Richter performances. On Regis CD, RRC1115. Originally on Olympia.

 

Believe it or not, the majority of the CDs I have recommended to you, were originally recommended to me from that book.

 

Speaking of Stokowski, didn't he live to be 96? He lived longer than any other conductors of the 20th century. He also was known to have recording contracts lined up till he was 100 years old ...

 

It's worth noting that Wand has recorded Bruckner's 8th more than once. I have the late '80s Lubeck Cathedral recording, and the church's acoustics certainly give the performance a unique feel. I haven't heard Wand's more recent (and nowadays, more readily available) recording.

 

Tastes Bad/Less Filling

Hey! I got's me one of those.

I stopped using the Penguin a while ago, guess I've looked through it enough. And there is nothing more vile or depraved than a Fanfare addict. Grammophone is great if you're into the various nuances of obsequious modes of speech and there's always back issues of Creem and Circus if you're into the really nasty stuff.

 

Now playing this SACD from my Chopin collection ...

 

And I Don't Like His Haircut, Either

I had the late recording with Berlin, though truth to tell it's possible that I've owned Wand's earlier recordings. I've turned over so many recordings of Bruckner's, I honestly can't remember them all. I do recall hearing two different recordings of Karajan's Bruckner Eighth and disliking both. I do recall hearing two different recordings of Furtwangler and liking both.

 

Karajan gave the last concert in the US performing Bruckner 8th with the VPO at Carnegie Hall in February 89, just five months before his death. Many who were at Carnegie Hall that evening considered that concert the greatest Bruckner 8th concert they ever attended. Unfortunately for me, I knew Karajan and the VPO were in town but decided against attending the concert since I did not like Bruckner music then ...

 

I imagine the Chopin Nocturnes by Ivan Moravec was probably recommended by the book since it is a sufficiently old recording ...

 

I have never ordered anything from Amazon UK, no. If I had wanted the Miles Davis box set, I probably would have. Either there or France.

The best price I've found anywhere lately was the box of all of Paul Lewis' Beethoven sonatas, as a gift for someone. It was $55 shipped from England v. $99 on US Amazon. Such a deal!

 

Comes In On Little Cat Feet

They're recommended by me because Moravec has a sense of touch that rivals Gieseking.

 

My experience so far with the UK e-tailers has been that they usually tend to have much better prices for small European labels compared with the US e-tailers ...

 

Gieseking. Gieseking. I think I had a set of records with his Mozart piano sonatas. It was actually a real album, held together by wooden dowels IIRC. Does this sound right?

If it is what I think I remember, the playing transcended -- almost transcended, I should say -- the problem of surface noise.

Has he ever done a good-sounding version of these on CD? It was on Angel, or EMI. I think Angel.

 

I think EMI released an Icon box on Gieseking recordings if I am not mistaken - gotta to put this on my shopping list. I have some LP's by Gieseking on the Seraphim label ...

 

Gieseking recorded the complete Mozart piano music for EMI, which reissued the recordings in a biggish CD box some years ago. Dunno if it's still in print. The recordings are a bit controversial, as G. largely eschews pedal--and he was known particularly as a master of pedaling. Earlier, during the 78 era, he recorded at least the 11th, 14th, and 16th stas. for Columbia; to be honest, I don't remember them well, but my impression is that they were more conventional. As far as the complete cycle goes, I'll confess that my own preference is for something a bit less austere. Obscure, to be sure, but very nice is a complete set of the sonatas by Gitti Pirner. (She also, by the by, was responsible for a lovely recording of the Mendelssohn preludes and fugues on the apparently, and sadly, now-defunct Callig label.) I'm also fond of Lili Kraus's recordings, not solely because my wife studied with her, but I like her prewar efforts on Parlophone (yes, 78s again) better than the postwar ones on Haydn Society and Columbia/Odyssey, fine though those be. Probably the strangest Mozart solo piano record in my collection is the theme-and-variation mvt. from the 11th ("Turkish rondo") sonata as performed by Rachmaninoff, an Edison diamond disc. If you can imagine Mozart through the lens of Russian romanticism, you'll get the idea.

 

There were fat boxes of Gieseking LPs from Italy being blown out as cutouts in various Berkeley stores in the late 70's/early 80's. They had wood veneer facings. Owned a few including a Beethoven box with most of the sonatas. No-one has played Debussy with the finesse of Gieseking though the CD transfers I've heard never seem to have the body of the vinyl transfers.

 

Oh well, when you asked this question it was 1:46 A.M. (of Monday) in Riga. And my own question should sound "So maybe today?.."

 

There are 4 minutes per degree. What is the longitude of Riga? I was just trying to figure out the time difference between NYC and Riga. I don't live in NYC but am in the same time zone ...

 

Here is the EMI box set for Gieseking, which is on my shopping list after the Christmas ...